ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to analyze the manufacturing growth of Bangladesh over the last 50-year period, since its independence in 1971, in view of the rapid structural transformation which has taken place in the economy. In 1972/73, the share of the industry sector was less than 14 per cent of GDP, while that of agriculture was almost 50 per cent. And, within the industry sector, the manufacturing sub-sector's share of GDP was only 9 percent (in 1972–73). Now in recent years, the share of agriculture has declined to less than 15 per cent (in 2019/20), while the GDP share of industry has increased to around 30 per cent and, within the industry sector, the share of the manufacturing sub-sector in GDP has risen to about 20 per cent. Indeed, one would like to know about the rapid transformation of the economy which has taken place. Gone are the days when the economy was heavily dependent on primary produce, with jute and jute goods comprising 90 per cent of total exports (in 1972/73). Nowadays as much as 95 per cent of the Bangladeshi export basket consists of manufactured goods (in 2018–19), though out of low technology. Understandably, it is of interest to know about the development strategy which has been pursued in Bangladesh, moving from an import substitution industrial policy with strong state controls to an export-led growth policy, the so called ’look-east’ policy, with a dominant private sector comprising mostly of domestic entrepreneurs. The double-digit manufacturing growth (over 12.0 per cent average annual manufacturing growth) achieved during the first four years of the seventh Five-Year Plan of Bangladesh (2015–2020) has, obviously, been greatly helping the industrialization drive of the country. However, as Bangladesh is aiming to become a lower-middle-income country by 2021 (Bangladesh Vision 2021) and a developed country by 2041 (Bangladesh Vision 2041), it is also of interest to know the challenges ahead over the period of a pandemic.
